Microsoft has started to distribute its own Java distribution based on OpenJDK, providing a free open source Java distribution that could compete with Oracle's Java distributions. The product It is distributed free of charge and is available in source code under the GPLv2 license.
Binaries Microsoft Build of OpenJDK may contain fixes and improvements that are considered important to customers and internal users, but have not been incorporated into the upstream OpenJDK project. These fixes and improvements will be noted in the release notes with the available source code.
As a reminder, Oracle in 2019 transferred its Java SE binary distributions to a new license agreement. which restricts commercial use and allows free use only in software development or personal use, testing, prototyping, and application demonstration. For commercial use at no charge, it is suggested to use the free OpenJDK package licensed under the GPLv2 with GNU ClassPath exceptions that allow dynamic linking with commercial products.
The OpenJDK 11 branch, which is used in the Microsoft distribution, is classified as LTS versions, whose updates will be generated until October 2024. OpenJDK 11 is maintained by Red Hat Company.
Note that This OpenJDK distribution published by Microsoft is the company's contribution to the Java ecosystem and an attempt to strengthen interaction with the community. The distribution is positioned as stable and is already used by many Microsoft products and services, including Azure, Minecraft, SQL Server, Visual Studio Code, and LinkedIn.
It is mentioned that Microsoft Build of OpenJDK will have a long maintenance cycle with quarterly release of free updates. It will also include fixes and enhancements that, for one reason or another, are not accepted in the OpenJDK mainstream, but are recognized as important to Microsoft customers and projects. These additional changes will be explicitly noted in the release notes and published in the source code in the project repository.
Today we are pleased to announce the general availability of Microsoft Build of OpenJDK, a new no-cost distribution of OpenJDK that is open source and available for free for anyone to deploy anywhere. As we said earlier when we announced the Microsoft Build Preview of OpenJDK, Microsoft uses a lot of Java with over 500.000 JVMs running internally. The Java Engineering Group is proud to contribute to the Java ecosystem and help power workloads like LinkedIn, Minecraft, and Azure.
Microsoft also announced that he has joined the Eclipse Adoptium Working Group, which is considered a vendor-independent platform for distributing OpenJDK binaries that are fully compliant with Java specifications, meet AQAvit quality criteria, and are ready for production projects.
For full specification compliance, assemblies distributed through Adoptium are validated against the Java SE TCK (an agreement between Oracle and Eclipse Foundation is used to access the Technology Compatibility Kit).
Currently, OpenJDK builds 8, 11, and 16 from the Eclipse Temurin project (formerly the Java distribution of AdoptOpenJDK) are distributed directly through Adoptium. The Adoptium project also includes IBM-generated JDK assemblies based on the OpenJ9 Java virtual machine, but these assemblies are distributed separately through the IBM site.
The distribution includes executables for Java 11 and Java 16, based on OpenJDK 11.0.11 and OpenJDK 16.0.1. Builds are ready for Linux, Windows and macOS and are available for the x86_64 architecture. Additionally, a test build based on OpenJDK 16.0.1 has been generated for ARM systems, which is available for Linux and Windows.
In addition to this general availability, Microsoft also ofrece Microsoft Build of OpenJDK Docker images and corresponding Docker files. These are designed to be used by any Java application or Java application component for deployment anywhere, including Microsoft Azure.
Source: https://devblogs.microsoft.com